Dog Is Their Best Friend in Home Fire

Family and friends had urged Paul Busto to get rid of that mutt, most recently when he had to shell out $200 because Bruno needed eye surgery. That dog is just too much trouble, they said.

But Bruno was a hero Thursday, credited with saving his owners and three others from a fire that gutted the living room of their Anaheim apartment.

“I’m never, never going to get rid of him,” said Busto’s wife, Laurie Stewart, 40, who sobbed as she clutched the dog, who goes back to the vet today to have the stitches removed from his eyelid. “He saved our lives.”

Bruno’s owners were sound asleep just before 3 a.m. Thursday, as were their two children and an out-of-town guest who was spending the night, when the dog began barking frantically.

“Bruno went off and started scratching the [bedroom] door,” said Busto, a 33-year-old martial arts instructor. Busto then realized that the apartment was on fire. The adults grabbed their children and the dog and fled the flames. “Bruno must have smelled the smoke.”

Fire authorities said the blaze apparently originated in a trash can on a patio just outside the living room. The flames spread to the attic and also destroyed the family’s living room and part of the kitchen. The roof of the fourplex apartment unit also was destroyed.

The fire caused about $50,000 in damage, Anaheim fire spokeswoman Robyn Butler said. The cause is under investigation.

Busto and Stewart said they didn’t have working batteries in their smoke detectors.

“The dog was our smoke alarm,” Stewart said.

The brown-and-black Rottweiler-chow mix was still sooty and worn out Thursday from the early morning ordeal, but he had enough energy to play with several toys that a local pet store had donated. Bruno also was the subject of lots of hugs and kisses, and pats and scratches. His owners spoiled him with dog biscuits and a special lamb-and-rice meal.

“Lamb and rice is his favorite,” Busto explained. “He’s an amazing dog. If we didn’t have him, the circumstances would have been a lot worse.”

The Red Cross is helping the family with living arrangements at a local hotel until they can find a new place to live. Busto expects to hear today whether another apartment is available in the same Felicidad Circle complex where the fire occurred. It’s one of the few in the area that allows pets.

In the past, some of Busto’s friends and relatives have urged him to get rid of the dog, citing the difficulty in finding places to live with a pet, and the cost of food and veterinary care for the dog, which is prone to eye infections. But Busto said Thursday this incident will change their minds about the dog he has had since it was a puppy.

This isn’t the first time that Bruno served as family protector. Twice, his owners suspect, his barking scared off would-be burglars who started to break in but then gave up.

“He definitely knows when something’s wrong in the house,” Busto said. “He’ll bark right there wherever the problem is. He’s very overprotective of the family.”